Configuring NETBIOS/Samba

[Pedro Fernandes Macedo]

Tom Taylor wrote:

> I'm using Fedora Core 1, dual booted with Windows XP, on a small house 
> network (5-6 PCs). The router, a Linksys 4 port is managing DHCP, and 
> we're all on Class C.
> I'm trying to get Fedora to share folders with the Windows machines, 
> as well as just interact via hostnames. If I type 'ping windowsbox', 
> it cannot find the IP in Fedora, whereas it will find it easily in XP. 
> Presumably this is due to some sort of NETBIOS DNS lookup.

It's a netbios name lookup... instead of using dns , m$ decided that a 
broadcast was better than using dns to resolve local names... If memory 
serves me well , there's a daemon called Lisa that tries to do the same 
thing....

> I have configured the workgroup in Samba, and the hostname of the 
> machine is 'tom'.
>
> So, what do I need to configure to allow my fedora box to see my 
> windows machines through DNS? I should also mention that they change 
> IPs regularly, so keeping the whole network static and using 
> /etc/hosts is not an option.

As mentioned by Roger, you can setup your box to run a dhcp server and a 
dns server... But , as it is a dual boot machine , I dont recommend 
that, because if you were on windows xp , the other machines wont get a 
ip and will be unable to resolve names (unless you configure two or 
three dns servers on /etc/resolv.conf or in windows), unless you 
configure a dns and dhcp server on windows also...

Pedro Macedo